This paper focuses on the person-denoting structure ' A jian B' in modern China. It tries to analyze the structure from three d ifferent aspects: structure construction, semantic analysis and comparison of re lating structures. After the discussion the paper holds that the cognitive found ation of the structure is the multiple roles of people in society, and the seman tic foundation of it is that the person-denoting nouns A and B are complementar y compatible, co-de...
